Both these videos are from German web retailer Innovative Materials, who apparently used to sell something called “superhydrophobic aerogel” in powder or granule form. In these videos, surfaces coated with this powder react in interesting ways to water. They seem to be sold out of the stuff, but a bit of Googling confirms that superhydrophobic aerogels do exist and can be made in many ways. Exactly what type was used in these demonstrations is unclear. [via Boing Boing]

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c’t – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

An alternate company, call NeverWet.com is working on an arosol version of this powder. This is some really cool technology. There is more information on: http://superhydrophobiccoating.com/
But I didn’t see where or how to obtain the stuff.